19 English Tutors Online

How does The Metamorphosis illustrate the old saying: “The more you do for someone, the more that someone takes you for granted”?

What is the source of Gregor’s condemnation to a life of as an insect or bug (vermin)?

Discuss the central events in each of the three sections of the story. In what ways do these events suggest that the weakening of Gregor results in the strengthening of the family as a whole?

Review the following link on existentialist philosophy. Then explain how Kafka’s text could be viewed in this way. http://www.philosophybasics.com/movements_existentialism.html

How does Woolf’s text, A Room of One’s Own, embody the period of Modernism?

In Woolf’s text, she describes going to British Museum to locate a definition of femininity. What does she discover? Why is she so frustrated?

Which text did you most prefer this week? Kafka’s or Woolf’s? Explain why.

The 20th century see the shift from Romantic poetry about the natural landscape to lingering writing about the "insidious streets" of the modern city. Give an example of the above statement from T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" and Pablo Neruda's "Walking Around" that shows this shift.

Modernists such as William Butler Yeats created or reinterpreted mythologies about aesthetics, history, and imagination. Look up what "gyres" are in Yeats' "The Second Coming" and define. Are there religious tones to "The Second Coming"? Consider if each gyre represents a cycle of history covering approximately 2,000 years, but both gyres exist simultaneously, one always implying the other. Does this make you look at the poem differently? Thoughts?

Many Modernist poets wrote about the politics that affected them personally and as artists. Read Anna Akhmatova's "Requiem." This poem is about a Russian mother's pain during the Stalinist regime. What do you see in the poem? What are your thoughts about the political message? You can be honest. If you don't understand it, you don't understand it. However, it might help if you read the foreword by the editors. :)

Go to www.poets.org. Search for "A Brief Guide to Modernism." Read the section and respond to the change from the Romanticism and Realism periods to Modernism. Then click on "browse poets from this movement." What do these sections tell you to expect from Modernist writing and poetry?

Which poem did you enjoy most? Why? What about the Modernist poetry stimulates your thinking the most? Which poem did you like least?